An Unexpected Turn of Fate
by Tsukishou
Summary: She was just an ordinary player of the game. He was far from what you call ordinary. A meeting led into another, and another led into an unexpected turn of fate. And this is the story of how he changed her days.
1. A Meeting

**PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE READING THE STORY! **This story uses the universe of Perfect World International **as an ONLINE GAME**, but using a somehow different system (like .Hack but a bit different). I know the story might sound strange and confusing at some point. Even _I _am confused. But just ignore it, please and thank you.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own PWI and any of its contents.

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_Game Start_

_Currently loading…_

_Logging in…_

_**Welcome to Perfect World**_

_***~*Chapter One: A Meeting*~***_

A short beeping sound rang in my head, telling me that I had successfully logged into the game I had known all too well, Perfect World. It was currently one of the most internationally known online games; people from all over the world in wide variety of age played this game. Playing game itself was simple enough; you put on a something-head-device (I could never remember the device's name right) and the visualization of the game will be sent to your head. To put it simply, put on the head-thingy and you'll see the in-game world.

I opened my eyes as the game finished loading, projecting the surrounding of the last spot I had logged off from. Or so I thought. _Now where am I again?_ I thought confusedly as I didn't recognize my PC's surroundings.

Surrounding me was a misty forest, with quite a high mountain or something blocking my front view. I was so sure that I had logged off from Archosaur, just after reporting a quest to General Summer. Or was it two weeks ago? _I really need to keep tracks about these kinds of things…_ I noted mentally.

"Perhaps I was doing some kind of quest?" I asked to no one in particular as there really weren't any other players around. As I was just about to check my quest list, some small stabbing sounds rang on my headphones. I glanced at my HP bar and almost jumped in shock as I realized that it was rapidly decreasing.

"The hell?"

I looked around and saw some kind of wolfman archer—not to mention the deep-orange colored name hanging above its head—shooting some arrows at me. "Oh crap…" I cursed under my breath as I saw my HP was now almost in critical condition. In my panic I activated the spell town portal without thinking. Luckily, the spell finished just in time before it could send me the final blow, and my vision flashed in black.

Not even two seconds later, the view around me changed into the ever-bustling city of Archosaur. I sighed in relief as the familiar view filled my vision. Not wanting to have people stepping through me or something, I jumped onto the nearest tall roof and sat back, recovering my HP as I checked my quest list with no worries.

I sighed as my eyes went throughout the endless lines of quest. A small beeping sound distracted my attention and a private chat box opened.

From Ame.

-Ame: Tchet…- The sender typed my name.

-Tchet: Hey there-

-Ame: These quests are killing me…-

-Tchet: LOL-

-Ame: Seriously… I mean, 30 mobs after another 30? What am I, Summer's personal butcher?-

I chuckled at her reply. Ame was a winged elf cleric. With most of the quest being grinding on not-so-small amount of different monsters, she always complained at how she almost always had to rely on other players just to finish one, or how absurdly long of a time needed to finish one quest alone. Not to mention she was never that much of a sociable person, thus rendering her to only able to rely on my help most of the time. And that's why General Summer was never her favorite NPC.

-Tchet: Can't expect less from an online game, can you? What are we going to do without any quest at all? Sleeping around the field?-

-Ame: I guess so…-

-Tchet: Anyway, wanna do a quest together?- I asked, knowing that she was probably going to ask for my help.

-Ame: Sure! Invite me-

I sent a squad invitation and she accepted right away. In no less than 2 minutes later she fell down from the sky as gracefully as any winged elves could be, as usual.

"So, where to?"

"I got a quest near the hidden Orchid Village. Shall we go there?"

"Lead the way."

We walked to the nearest Teleportation Master and teleported right into the middle of the village.

"Where to, now?"

"Follow me."

Ame summoned her wings and flew south of the village. I, too, summoned my Aerocraft, a giant flying mantis, and followed behind her. Ame had to stop a few times to wait for me to catch up; sky wasn't really venomancer's best field. I sent her an apologetic look after the tenth time.

"Nah, don't sweat it. Oh. We're here."

She undid her wings and fell straight into a thick forest. I followed after her and called back my Aerocraft. Strangely, she was nowhere to be seen when I safely landed on my feet.

"Ame?"

"Over here…"

I heard her voice but she was still nowhere to be seen. I looked at the mini map and saw that she was definitely near. Then I realized a wolf circling around a tree, as if waiting for a prey. I looked up and saw Ame standing right on the highest branch of the tree, with half her HP depleted. She waved her hand, trying to shoo away the menacing wolf to no avail, after throwing herself a few healing spells.

"Got it." I nodded.

I summoned my pet: a grey wolf I once found in a quest, and commanded it to attack the other wolf. It died in a few moments after a few beating and Ame's spell. Soon after it was dead, Ame jumped off the tree, patting nonexistent dust off her skirt as she landed.

"Ehehe… Sorry 'bout that…" She grinned as she walked towards me, playing with her green hair as she did so. I frowned as I realized something was wrong.

"W-what? I said I'm so—"

"Not that. Look at the mini map." I told her. She raised an eyebrow questioningly but still followed my instruction.

"What is it? Seems like just a bunch of player running around and—what's that orange circle behind them?"

Both of us looked away from the mini map as the crowd was getting closer, trying to get a better view. In less than a few seconds a bunch of players came running from behind the lines of trees from afar. I was just about to open my mouth to ask one of them what's going on when I realized they were running desperately from something.

"Run for your life!" One of them shouted while running.

Ame and I looked at each other confusedly when suddenly a loud roar was heard. We looked at the direction where the crowd came from and froze at the sight of a huge lizard-like monster. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. With thorns like stone growing on its back, and spiky green tail waving around as it move, the yellow lizard-like monster looked menacingly dangerous.

And it was walking in our direction.

"Damn! Ame, let's go!" I shouted at her, and almost freaked out when she gave no reaction.

"Oi, Ame!"

She couldn't be away at a time like this, could she?

"I can't…"

"What?" I shouted again, half in relief and half in anxiety.

"I can't fly! My wings won't come out!" She cried out, waggling her hands in panic.

"Seriously?"

I tried summoning my Aerocraft without waiting for her answer but to no avail. I tried a few more times but the results were still the same. I could see that Ame had no luck either. A bug, now of all the time?

"Eep!" She yelped and pointed forward. I looked to where she pointed and froze. The lizard opened its wide mouth, and a purple fireball-like formed in it. Ten seconds later fire burst out of its mouth with a loud roar, swiping a wide range between us and the monster.

Luckily, it seemed like its attack range was just a few centimeters short before it could affected both me and Ame. But my relief was quickly replaced by another panic as I saw the piles of dead player after the fire was gone.

"Use town portal!"

"No good! I just used it 15 minutes ago!"

"Oh!" I realized that I, too, had another 50 minutes before I could use the spell.

"Gah! Run for it!"

Ame shouted, snapping me out of my frozen state. I quickly ran after her, but soon realized that we were already in its attack range as the huge lizard was surprisingly fast. It gave another roar before opening its mouth and stopped for another attack. Just as I thought it might give us some time to run, I felt my feet stuck on the land.

"What's happening?" I heard Ame cried out, telling me she was in not so different situation.

"No!"

I closed my eyes, expecting my character to burn into crisps in three seconds.

But even after ten seconds (I mentally counted), the beeping which supposedly rang when my character died was not heard.

"Oi."

Instead, an unfamiliar male voice was heard, and it sounded very close. _Wait, a MALE voice?_ My eyes snapped open in surprise.

And my green eyes met crimson.

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**A.A.N: **First point of view is not my specialty but I'm trying to get it right. Sorry for the typos, grammatical errors and the likes. Thank you very much for reading. It doesn't sound interesting? Read on, it will get interesting (I hope). ...Or weirder. Critics are most needed and reviews will be loved :3


	2. The Blademaster and the Wizard

**A.N:** Thank you to Nio for the review! I didn't think I'd ever get any, but yours truly made my day! Well, to really show my appreciation, here's chapter 2! Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own PWI and any of its contents.

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_***~*Chapter Two: The Blademaster and the Wizard*~***_

Right before my eyes was a male's face. With striking crimson eyes and silver hair, he was one of a few players with most perfectly edited face I had ever seen. I frowned at how awkwardly close his face was to mine and looked away.

I realized that I was still alive, with my HP still as full as ever. In fact, I was no longer on ground. I looked down and realized I was way above the thick forest where the cursed lizard lay. And in the arms of the crimson eyed guy, no less.

"What the—? Who are—? Let me down!" I tried to struggle, feeling awkward in the arms of a stranger. Yet he didn't move. Instead, he looked around as if searching for something, ignoring me completely.

"I said, let me down! Are you even listening to me?" I shouted, angry as I felt ignored.

"Shut up. You're too loud." He finally said, yet still not looking at me. His voice was deep and threatening.

I snapped at his rude attitude. First he embraced me without asking and now he was telling me to shut up? How rude!

"What? Who do you think you are? I said let me down!" I demanded, yet he still didn't budge.

"I won't, so shut up."

"You wanna fight?"

"You wanna die?"

"…!" I fell silent as I realized that I was still in no safe place to land. I blushed in embarrassment as I realized that he was actually saving me from certain death.

"So you're actually capable of silence? Good."

"….kh!"

That's it! So what if he really DID save my life? That's absolutely no reason for him to treat me like trash!

Without thinking, I sent him a duel challenge.

"Hoo. A brave move from someone who had almost got herself burnt to ashes." He smirked cockily, not even the slightest threatened by my challenge. _Damn smug jerk._

To my surprise, he rejected it.

"Hee? After all that high talk you decided to run from a girl's challenge?" I mocked, letting a triumphant smirk escaped my lips.

"Are you stupid or simply brainless? I've got way more pressing matters than playing along with a brat."

And my smirk dropped.

The. Damn. Conceited. Jerk!

"Then just let me go already, you jerk! I'd rather die than to be saved by a jerk like you!" I snapped.

"As you wish."

And with that said, he easily let go of my body.

"Eh, serio—whoa!"

I freaked as I landed on my feet. I quickly looked around; expecting to see that hideous monster with its mouth wide open ready to shoot fires at me, but my view met no such a thing. In fact, my surrounding was now nothing but an empty forest; not even a single monster was seen around.

"What in the world… had just happened?"

"Surprised?"

I quickly looked at the annoying voice's owner direction. He was already standing behind me.

From this point of view, I could get a clearer view of him. Apparently, he was a human. A blademaster, to be precise. With black armor covering his tall and muscular body and that striking face of his, he was almost the most stunning player I had ever seen, if not for that rotten attitude of his.

"Did you… do this?" I dared myself to ask.

"Of course not. I was busy… handling a meddling matter just a while ago." He looked at me mockingly.

"..gh!" The urge to just summon my pet and kill him right then and there was getting too much to bear.

"Yo, Van!"

A cheerful male voice was heard. I looked to my right and saw a wizard flew towards us. Yet another perfectly edited character. With short light-blue hair fluttering about, and deep golden eyes, not to mention with such beautifully edited face, he was quite a competition for that red-haired jerk. These guys really put a lot of work to their appearance, it seems.

"Man, what took you so long? The party was way over now. You missed all the fun, bud." The new guy hit the blademaster by his shoulder playfully.

"Sorry, I was a bit… occupied." He glanced at me.

_What the—?_ HE was the one who wouldn't let me go in the first place, and now he blamed ME? The nerve!

"My, what do we have here? A girl? You? You're such a player, man…" The wizard whistled as he looked at my direction closely. I just smiled awkwardly as he stared.

"Don't place me at the same class as you. Believe me; I am happy to say that nothing happened like anything you're thinking right now." The blademaster replied coldly, as if disgusted at the thought.

"Haha… That's just like you. But still, it's not nice to play around with a girl when your partner is busy fighting for dear life, you know?" He crossed his arms and shook his head as he said so.

"Since when had we become partners? And you should be ashamed of your rank if you call such meddling task life-threatening." His attitude was no less rude even to his own comrade, but the other person didn't seem to mind it as much as I did.

From their conversation, it seemed that the wizard was the one who defeated the monster. I listened in awe as they conversed _almost_ so casually, not understanding how the blue-haired wizard could manage to do that against such nerving attitude.

"Cold as ever, eh? Anyway, are you okay, lady? Hope this partner of mine took care of you well." He turned to me and smiled. At last, a decent and nice guy!

"I'm fine, thanks. I'm really amazed to see that you're able to take care of that hideous monster, umm..." I stopped, not knowing what to call him. He stopped a bit, as if not expecting my praise, before smiling again.

"The name's Raysand, executor of Sylveria!" The blue-haired wizard introduced himself. I raised an eyebrow at the mention of the name Sylveria. _Isn't it one of—if not the most—most powerful guilds in this server?_

"And this one is Vanzard. Come on, Van. Introduce yourself! I know you probably haven't!" He smacked the guy's back as he said so, ignoring the irritably growl coming from the receiving end.

I heard the guy called Van sighed heavily, as if giving up already on disagreeing. He gave a long pause before turning to me and reluctantly introduced himself.

"…Vanzard. Executor of Sylveria." He mumbled.

So this guy was a high ranker in that famous guild too. _At least now I know what guild I don't want to enter._

"And I believe I haven't caught your name, miss…." I heard Raysand saying, reminding me that I hadn't introduced myself yet.

"Oh! Sorry, I'm Tchet, currently guild-less." I smiled as I introduced myself. It won't hurt to act nice, right?

"Tchet, eh? That's quite a lovely name, fitting for such a lovely lady like you." He nodded along with his statement, before sending another playful wink at me. I shivered as he approached me, not used to such lines coming from a male.

"And to have such a beautiful lady praising me truly made my day. Would you, perhaps, like to join me in my afternoon walk? I know a good place to—"

"Stop playing around, Rays. We don't have time for your stupid jokes." Vanzard cut his lines.

"Oh my. Did my ears just catch, perhaps, jealousy?" He said playfully, turning back into teasing him. Quite the nerve of steel he got there, for being able to stay so cheerful after such an intimidating tone, while others would probably cower after such attitude. Or simply wreck the speaker's neck. They must be very close friends.

Speaking of close friends…

"Ame! Where is she? Did any of you see her?" I asked frantically, as I had totally forgotten about her after all that had happened.

"Ame? Ah, you mean that cute cleric? She, err… said that she had some urgent business to do and logged out already. But she's fine, really." Raysand scratched his head and laughed awkwardly. His tone was a bit strange, but I ignored it as I was more than relieved to hear that she was okay.

"Thanks for saving her too, Raysand." I thanked him again.

"Haha… Nice to know that someone is appreciating my help. You're very welcome, m'lady." He winked at me. I frowned. Ame left without even thanking him? Now _that_ was strange.

"Oy Rays. Don't waste too many time with the brat. We need to hurry." Vanzard spoke up, calling up to Raysand while he was already on his sword without me noticing.

Wait. Did he just call me a _brat_? _Again?_

"Why, you…!"

"Well then, 'till we meet again, Tchet."

Raysand waved at me from his sword as they both flew away, leaving me without giving any chance to say anything else.

"What the hell… was that all about?"

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**A.A.N: **I just realized that not that much of people read stories about Perfect World, or is it just on my story? *sad* Anyway, though this story use first person point of view, the main character is based on my best friend, and the story is dedicated to her. And as usual, critiques are welcomed, reviews are loved, and readers are given virtual cookies!**  
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	3. Repaying the Debt

**A.N: **First of all, thank you so much to Oragie for the review, and to whoever that's still reading this story! I'm really happy to know that at least there's someone that enjoys the story! Anyway, here comes chapter 3!**  
**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own PWI.

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_Game Start_

_Currently loading…_

_Logging in…_

_**Welcome to Perfect World**_

_***~*Chapter Three: Repaying the Debt*~***_

It's been two days since the "lizard incident" and I hadn't been in contact with Ame ever since. After some investigating on my own, I had learned that the incident was actually a high-level-quest-turned-into-a-bug kind of incident. Apparently, those who had died from the lizard's attack had lost quite an amount of both experience and spirit point, almost to the point where they had to rebuild a whole level, causing many complaints pouring down the world chat being directed to the Game Masters.

_If__ that __guy hadn't showed up, then maybe I, too…. _I shivered at the thought.

Maybe Ame really _did_ die in that accident and had to rebuild her EXP. If that's the case then her disappearing for the past two days was understandable, as she just wasn't the type who'd happily redo all those monsters grinding for EXP. But that blue-haired guy said she was fine, and he didn't seem to lie. There really was no point in lying about such a thing, right?

As my mind began to wonder the private message alert suddenly rang and a private chat box opened. Feeling disturbed, I was just about to close it as I read the sender's name; Ame.

-Ame: Tchet…-

-Tchet: Ame? 'r u okay?- I typed hurriedly.

-Ame: I'm fine. Sorry I just left without saying anything the other day…-

-Tchet: It's okay. So u really didn't die that time, huh? That's great.-

A few seconds passed in silence.

-Tchet: Ame?-

Still no reply. Was she away?

-Ame: Sorry. I was just thinking… never mind.-

-Tchet: Really? Anyway, can you recall what had happened back then? I… couldn't really remember what happened before those guys saved us.-

More like I closed my eyes out of fear of death, but I couldn't really say it like that as it was just too embarrassing

-Ame: You don't remember? Well, I remembered seeing you suddenly being swept away by a red haired guy and flew up before the blue haired guy did the same to me. I didn't see you after that as it looked like you flew pretty high.-

-Tchet: I see… What happened to you then? I heard you logged off right after Raysand saved you without even thanking him….-

-Ame: THAT's what he said?-

-Tchet: Y-yeah. What's wrong? Did something happened before that?-

There was a long pause before she replied.

-Ame: Actually…-

_The flare from the lizard's mouth was just inches away from both him and Ame. Just a few seconds late and both of them will add up to the pile of those poor dead players. She looked up at her savior and felt her heart skipped, amazed by how beautifully edited his face is._

"_Wait here." He said as he lifted her off on the highest branch of a tree not far from where the lizard was. He soon landed and dashed towards the menacing monster, weapon ready at hand. _

_The lizard swung its spiky tail and hit him but he didn't seem to be fazed. In fact he calmly chanted a spell, completely ignoring its attacks. A loud roar was heard as he landed what seemed like thousands of fire spears, rendering the monster's HP to no more than its half. He repeated the same attack a few times and the monster shrieked in defeat, its HP finally reached zero. Ame could only stand there and watched in amazement as he ended it in no longer than 10 seconds._

"_You can come down now." He called to her, his hand gesturing for her to come down. She did just as he said, still amazed by what had just happened. For a few seconds all she could do was stare at him in awe._

"_Did you get hurt, lady? It saddens me to see such pretty cleric like yourself got hurt." He winked at her._

_And she blinked. Hard._

"_Uh… What?" Confused, clearly. She wasn't used to hear such… compliments._

"_Sorry I couldn't come any faster. If there's anything I could do to make up for it, then please just say so." He took her right hand and placed a quick kiss on it. She shivered._

_What. The. Hell?_

"_Uh, sorry, but—whoa!" Ame felt something bumped into her and accidently moved her character forward, bumping herself to his chest._

"_My my. No need for the rush, dear." He said as he caught her by her shoulder. "But if you insist then, I won't mind a thank-you kiss…" And with that, he gave her a quick peck on the lips._

_Ame froze for a long moment._

"_What's wrong?" He smiled sweetly._

"_You…"_

"_Hm?"_

"_You… You… Freak!" She hit him with her wand, landing a 30-points-worth of damage, and logged off._

-Tchet: He did WHAT?- I almost yelped on my chair.

-Ame: You're not seriously asking me to repeat myself, are you?- She replied coldly. It was clear that she was still pissed by the incident.

-Tchet: Ahaha… sorry 'bout that.-

And then there was a long silence as I was at loss of words. I knew from my brief talk with the man called Raysand that he was quite a player. But I had no idea he would be _that_ daring, or rather, self-centered.

-Ame: My brother….- Ame suddenly said.

-Tchet: Huh?-

-Ame: My little brother bumped onto my hand. That's why I ACCIDENTALLY bumped onto him. I DIDN'T ask for _anything.- _She explained. I almost burst into laughter as I see her trying so hard to explain things to me.

-Tchet: I know. You'll never ask such thing. Hell, you won't even ask some random guy's name, let alone a kiss.-

-Ame: Right?- I could almost hear her sighing in relief.

-Tchet: But he wasn't such a bad guy, I think. He _did_ save us, didn't he?-

-Ame: I…guess so…-

-Tchet: Well then, wanna go do some quest?- I offered.

There was a long pause before she replied.

-Ame: Nah, I'll past for today. Connection is kinda bad today, anyway. Bye-

And she logged off before I could even say 'bye'. Though I found her reply kind of strange as she rarely turn off my offer, I decided not to give it too much of a thought as I remembered my own oh-so-long lines of quests.

I looked throughout the long lines and decided to do the quest near the outskirts of Angler Village. I searched for the nearest teleporter, and teleported to the village right away.

I frowned.

When did the grassy field turned into a rocky cliff?

I had been told to search for some difficult-named flower (or was it herbal grass?) and had done so for the past 30 minutes with no luck. Obviously, I would search for such item at the grassy field near Angler Village. And now I had no idea why I was standing around a cliff, with not even a single grass around.

I looked around, trying to figure out how I ended up on such a place, but my view only met huge rocks around a seemed-to-be-bottomless cliff. No players or monsters were around, either.

I checked my map and was surprised to find that Angler Village was already miles away to the south. _Talk about getting lost… _

I sat under the shade of the biggest rock and sighed; thinking of how flying back would so troublesomely took a lot of time.

"…no problem…"

"Hm?" I looked around as I heard a voice of someone speaking and realized that there were two tideborns flying not far from where I sat. They seemed to be talking to each other, not even noticing me as I was hidden behind the giant rock.

"Are you sure he won't suspect a thing?" One of them said. I was ready to crawl out of my 'hiding' place and walk away as I didn't like the idea of eavesdropping.

"I saw him entered the cave myself. That Vanzard guy was stupid enough to follow a fake order, it seems."

I froze at the mention of a familiar name.

"But really, will that be enough to prevent him from coming? It was just a cave, right?"

"Fool. That cave under this cliff was already "tampered" by _him. _Believe me, you wouldn't want to come into any place _he _had messed around with." The other guy warned, his voice sounding dead serious.

"I see... With that Vanzard out of the picture, this territorial war is as good as ours." The other guy laughed cynically.

"Now, hurry. We have to prepare ourselves for the war. I don't wanna miss the look at those Sylveria scums when they lost their territory."

And with that, the two of them flew away.

I released the breath I didn't realized I was holding as the two of them was out of sight. I looked at the cliff and walked to its edge. I was sure they were talking about this cliff and a cave that was supposed to be down there just now.

A tampered cave? Territorial war? Vanzard?

What was that all about, anyway?

I frowned as I didn't understand it a bit. One thing I was sure of: that Vanzard guy was in trouble. "Well, it's probably his own fault for having such a rotten attitude." I told myself. I hesitantly turned around to leave, but the thought of ignoring people whom I knew might need help heaved my step. Not to mention that the person had saved me once back then.

I stopped my step, and turned once again to look at the cliff.

"Tch. I guess I _do_ owe him one."

And without further ado, I jumped off the cliff with a certain crimson-eyed man in mind.

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**A.A.N: **Got nothing to say in particular. Just the usual:critiques are welcomed, reviews are loved, and readers are given virtual cookies! Oh. And if there's something weird about the story then please say so. I didn't give it much thorough re-read and check.**  
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	4. The Tampered Cave

**A.N: Very special thanks for Oragie and 4000kills for the review! **I'd love to update often as long as you, and all other readers keep reading the story! After all, what's a story for if not to be read? Anyway, here's chapter 4!

**Disclaimer: I do not own PWI.**

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*~*Chapter Four: The Tampered Cave*~***_

"Is this…the cave?"

I was now standing in front of the somewhat ominous-looking mouth of a cave, feeling nervous by the fact that I was going to enter alone. Hesitance crossed over my mind, but I shook it right away, convincing myself that I _needed _to do this. I gulped as I stepped forward, entering the dark entrance.

"Here goes nothing."

My vision went black as I entered the cave, and in two seconds the view changed into the inside of the cave. I quickly looked around but saw no sign of him. Was he already in the deeper side of the cave?

As soon as I stepped deeper in, a strange sensation struck my head, as if a buzz suddenly ringed my head. The view suddenly blurred and flashed brightly in less than seconds. I froze in surprise.

_Was it a bug? _

I looked around but nothing seemed to have changed. Deciding that it was probably nothing, I walked even deeper into the cave while looking around, searching for a certain blademaster.

Not until I entered deep enough into the cave, voices clashing metals and slashing sounds could be heard. I quickly rushed to the source, knowing that I probably had reached my target. And true as I suspected; there he stood, fighting amongst many black worm-like monsters.

And when I said many, I mean _loads _and _loads _of them.

As I came closer, it was even clearer to see that the swarm of those worm-monsters didn't plan on reducing its mass anytime soon. There were so many of them attacking him all at once that it was amazing to see that he was still standing strong, and even fighting them like that.

Without thinking, I sent Rexan, my wolf pet, to his aid, commanding it to attack one of the monsters. Vanzard looked at me when he realized my presence, and suddenly stopped his attacks.

"Fool!" He shouted angrily.

"W-what?" Just when I thought he would be grateful for my aids, he insulted me instead. True that I hadn't expecting him to say any extra nice words, _but this?_

Suddenly two of the monsters attacked me. I almost yelped in shock as the attack cost me quite some damage. I called back my pet to aid me instead but it didn't do much of a difference, as it seemed that my pet didn't do enough damage to the monsters.

A loud bang was heard and the two monsters attacking me were gone in a flash. I looked around confusedly and realized that Vanzard had used some kind of area attack, wiping off the monster surrounding him and myself.

Damn, the bastard's strong.

"Come!" He ran towards the direction I just came from and gestured me to follow him. Confused, I did just as he said.

As we reached the end of the cave, he quickly sat down and leaned against one of the wall, probably trying to heal as much HP and MP as he could in however short of a time we got. Though still confused of his earlier act, I went and sat across him anyway. There was a brief silence before he finally spoke up.

"Why are you here?"He asked, with his not-so-nice-of-a-tone sounding even more solemn than last I heard.

"I… uh… well… there were these guys above the cliff talking about this cave… and… well…" I stuttered, not sure of what to say as I didn't feel like telling him that I actually came for him.

"Guys? Was one of them called, Frieudh?" He suddenly asked.

"Huh? Um, I don't know, really. They were flying around so I couldn't really catch their names. I could only tell that they were both tideborns from what I barely saw."

"I… see. And what did they say about this cave?" He threw another question, with no nicer tone than before.

_What's with this interrogation-like conversation?_

"Well, they were talking about how this cave was supposed to have been 'tampered', and about winning some kind of territorial war…" I tried remembering the conversation I accidentally eavesdropped on, but finding it difficult under this interrogation-like pressure he was sending me, almost making me felt as if I was at fault here.

"Tampered, eh? Hmph. So I was right…"

And then he fell silent, seemed like he was thinking hard about something. Heavy silence filled the air. But it didn't take even a minute before I finally collected my courage to spoke up and broke the silence; there's just too many questionable and strange things going on and I demanded answers.

"So what's this all about? I also heard about them trying to prevent you to come to the war, saying something about without you around, they'd win for sure or something…" I finally asked the question that had bugged me all this time.

"So that's what they think, eh? Fools." He let out a mocking chuckle, seeming amused in such an ominous way.

"Err, hello?" I called out irritably, not liking the idea that he ignored my question. He glared at me as if disturbed but I glared at him back, demanding explanation. I was definitely not going to get involved in a mess I knew nothing of. At least not without knowing what it's all about.

After a short while he let out a sigh.

"Sylveria and Auron are having a territorial war over the City of Plume." He started to explain, hesitance clear in his voice.

"Auron, as in, Auron the second biggest faction in this server?" I interrupted, could care less of his hesitant attitude. He didn't answer and instead continued with his explanation.

"It probably had started now and those Auron trash thought Sylveria would surely fail without me. Heh. They're so solemnly mistaken to think so lightly about us, and they don't even realize it." Another mocking chuckle followed.

"And this cave was probably their resort of getting me out of the picture. As you heard, this cave has already been tampered with. In other word, hacked."

I blinked. _Hard._

Did he just say, _hacked_?

"Long details short, if players enter the cave, they'll be transferred into a copy of the cave, but with a different set of data in it. Those black worms and the fact that we cannot leave this cave is the clear example of said data."

I tried to process the explanation but his words were just too unbelievable. A hacked cave? Yeah, right. He was just probably messing up with me, right?

I got up and walked to the gate-like stone, which was supposed to teleport me back out_. Like I'll believe such obvious lies._ If he think that I'm stupid enough to buy that crap, then he's gravely mis—

I froze. Nothing happened even though I had touched the stone gate.

"See?" His voice came from across the room. I turned around and found him already standing near the cave's corridor. "It's about time."

"The monsters will come out anytime now. They were programmed to hunt down players that entered this cave. Careful not to die." He warned.

"How am I supposed to be careful? Those freaking bugs could gnaw me dead with just a few attacks! I'll just teleport the hell out of here!" I shrieked in panic. From afar the sound of the worms crawling their way towards us could be heard, telling me they had already re-spawned.

"Don't!" He suddenly shouted, stopping me from using the teleportation spell.

"If you die or teleport in a hacked cave, there's no telling what might happen to your character. In worst scenario, your character might become corrupted and deleted."

I froze, _again_. That sure didn't help calm my panic.

"For real? What am I supposed to do then?" I asked frantically, getting even more panicked as the sound of the bugs was getting closer.

"Just stay calm. Watch your HP. And stay out of the way." He commanded coldly.

_Easy for you to say, _I cursed mentally.

"Here they come."

And just as he'd said, another swarm of worms came flooding. He wasted no time and charged towards them, sending a wide-area blow and knocked some of them back. The monsters were slowly pushed back into the deeper part of the cave as he landed consecutive powerful attacks. As the monsters died one by one, I realized that something was strange.

I was sure that he had killed them off faster last time, and now he seemed to have slight difficulties just killing off one. As I watched closer, I realized that, much to my horror, the bugs were slightly bigger than before.

"Heh. What a thoughtful hacker we got here." He said, his tone sarcastic.

So I was right; the bugs were somehow stronger than before. Even so, he didn't seem to be a bit least panicked. Before I realized it he had already drove the bugs deeper into the cave, getting even farther from me.

I blinked as I realized this.

_Did he… purposely driving the monsters away from me?_

I shook my head at the thought. That stoic, cold jerk couldn't possibly do such thoughtful action.

Not liking the idea of being left alone in such a place, I followed behind him slowly, making sure that there'd always be some safe distance between me and the battle. He had managed to drive the monsters along the long corridor and they had now entered a wide square room, back to where I found him earlier. I shivered as I saw how those worms were roaming all over the room.

All I could do was hid myself behind a rock in the room, watching him fighting hard to survive, and maybe, _just maybe, _to protect me as well. I felt so useless as I watched him fighting so fiercely, and I definitely didn't like the feeling. _There's got to be something I can do._

I pointed my wand toward him and chanted a spell, Bramble Guard, a spell that gave its target a protection that could reflect some physical damage. I finished chanting and a green light washed upon him.

Unfortunately, one of the worms seemed to have noticed my presence because of the spell and was now coming after me. I almost yelped as it got closer, but quickly readied myself to attack. But before I could summon my pet, the monster was gone in a blue flash, and I realized that Vanzard had killed it before I could do anything about it.

"Don't attack. They'll all come to you." He said as he turned his back to me and dashed back to the swarm of monsters.

"What are you doing here, anyway? Go back. You're in the way." He commanded. I twitched at his ever stoic tone.

"I-I couldn't just let you fight alone, right?"

"You could heal?"

"No."

"Then you're not needed. Go back."

How he could stay so annoying while fighting endless swarm of monsters was beyond me, yet I stood my ground.

"When you die, then I'll die as well. It won't make any difference wherever I am when the time comes." I argued stubbornly. It was stupid of me to argue on such a silly thing, but I just couldn't help it. After all, I'd just worry myself sick if I just stayed back and waited.

Not that coming along would do any better, but still.

"Heh. Who do you think you're talking to, brat?" He said mockingly, his voice full of pride.

Though usually I'd snap at such attitude, hearing his confident voice had somewhat made me felt a bit reassured. Or maybe I was just getting nuts because of the pressure.

And yet, true to his high of a pride, he used a wide area attack, and ten of the monsters surrounding him died at once. He stood firmly in the middle of the dead monsters pile, his back still facing me. And for the split second, I felt strangely save as I watched his wide back.

"I won't die. And I absolutely won't let you die."

And—though I'd rather die than to admit it—his sentence sent my heart racing.

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**A.N: **Ookay, so I'm not the best at writing out battles, but please have mercy. After all, I'm just a writer-in-training, a novice even. Don't hold back on your critics and reviews! And thanks for reading this far. Hope you enjoy!


	5. Escaping Death

**The long-awaited(Or maybe not?) chapter five is here! Thank you for still reading this! And special thanks for 4000kills, WolfsNeverDie, and Crixtical for the nice reviews! Hope this chapter won't let you all down. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PWI. I don't even own most of the names… -_-

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_***~*Chapter Five: Escaping Death*~***_

Minutes seemed to pass by slowly as I watched him fighting monster after monster. Though he was steadily killing them off one by one, it seemed like the numbers of the monsters haven't decreased at all. In fact—though I hoped it was just my imagination—it seemed to have increased instead.

"This is bad." I heard him said. "I took too long; they've re-spawned already."

"Seriously?" I yelped in panic.

I watched as his HP slowly decreasing, cursing my own inabilities to help. In times like this I wished I could at least heal him, but the only healing skill I had was for my pet and self-healing only. I was a venomancer, supposedly capable to at least defending myself. And yet all I could do was standing there like such a damsel in distress, and I absolutely hate that.

"Just… a little bit… more…"

I frowned at his words. A little bit? What was he talking about?

"Hey, brat." He called out to me. I didn't like how he always called me that but this was absolutely no time to complain.

"See that other corridor across this room?" He said while still focusing on the mob, his hands still occupied with the monsters. I looked around, trying to find the said corridor. It was no easy task as the room was pretty dark and the swarm of monsters didn't help making the view any clearer.

"Oh, there!" I exclaimed as I finally found it.

"Call your pet. Lure the monsters to that corridor, as far away from us as you can." He paused, clearing his throat before he continued hesitantly. "Please."

I felt my heart beat faster as I heard him asking for my help for the first time. I knew that for such a cocky and absurdly strong guy like him to ask for my help could only mean that we were in a pretty dangerous situation, but I couldn't help but to feel happy.

"S-sure!" I quickly summoned Rexan, my only wolf pet, commanding it to attack the monsters surrounding Vanzard before moving it towards the corridor. I felt my hands shaking a bit in nervousness, but I tried hard to focus as I absolutely mustn't fail.

The mobs slowly but surely started to leave Vanzard, now targeting my pet and attacked it as they followed it across the room. I concentrated on healing Rexan rapidly as his HP was decreasing in a frightening speed.

_Please hold on, Rexan. Just a little bit more… _I mentally prayed for my dear pet.

Unfortunately, one of the monsters came towards me instead. I yelped in panic as in my current state, I was totally defenseless. Vanzard seemed to have realized this as well and quickly came to my aid, taking quite some damage to his HP in my place before killing off the monster.

"S-sorry about that!" I quickly apologized.

"Fool! Do it right!" He said before dashing away to kill yet another stray monster that came at me. I tried my best to focus but his scolding was making me even more nervous.

As some distance between us and the monsters was finally formed, he quickly dashed to my side. "Now! Let's go!" He pointed to the corridor where we had come from before, gesturing me to ran before him.

"Eh? But Rexan…"

"Leave it. This is our only chance to escape." He cut me off.

"But…!"

"Tch. We don't have time for this."

Without warning, he swept me off the ground, carrying me on his arms.

"W-what the—? L-let go!"

"Shut up, brat." And without any further ado, he dashed forward away with me in his arms, completely ignoring my protests.

"But Rexan…!"

Without my steady healing, Rexan's HP decreased even faster and finally reached zero. I wasn't even able to hear its last howl as we almost reached the room with the stone gate. All I could do was watching him carrying me along the corridor into the room, speechless as I lay helplessly on his arms. As we reached the room, he approached the stone gate.

_The stone gate from earlier?_ _Why are we here?_

I thought confusedly as I recalled the earlier event. Before I could even open my mouth to ask him, we reached the stone gate and a strange yet familiar sensation went through my head, and my vision blurred before a light flash filled the view.

"What…is going on?"

When my vision cleared, I realized that we were already outside the cave, just in front of its mouth. I looked up and realized that I was still in Vanzard's arms. Embarrassed, I quickly looked away.

He lifted me off his arms without saying anything and walked pass me. "Is everything alright?" He asked without looking at me.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm fine, but…" I paused, disheartened as I remembered Rexan. I quickly checked my pet data, and as I feared, his data was gone, as if I never had him at all. Heavy silent passed as I couldn't really find what to say as a complicated mix of feelings filled me.

"Sorry about your pet." He suddenly said, sounding strangely apologetic.

"Huh?" I looked up at him, confused at his sudden apology.

"It was gone, right? I knew it would happen but still told you to sacrifice it. It was all I could do to save both of us. Sorry." His tone was as cold as ever. But I could almost swear I heard a hint of guilt in his tone.

"N-no! It's…fine, really. True that I regret losing Rexan but you did save me back then. It was more than plenty enough. If anything, it was me that should be apologizing for not being able to help much." I said sincerely, feeling bad as he apologized when it was me that should have done so. There was a brief silence before I hesitantly continued. "T-thank you, Vanzard."

He shifted at the mention of his name, but didn't say anything. I waited for any reaction but found no such thing. _Did I… upset him?_ I thought worriedly.

"Hmph. True that you're of no use most of the time." He finally spoke up, his annoying tone was back. I twitched at his obvious mock but said no complain as it was the truth.

"If anything, you did nothing but get in the way. Weak and yet stubborn. Hell, you couldn't even hide well." He said frankly, his tone impertinent and rude as ever.

I clenched my fist, trying to suppress my anger.

_Even if that's the truth, did he really have to say it in such a rude way?_ _That damn smug jerk. One of these days I'll definitely kick his ass for good..._

"But…"

He turned around, and our eyes met. _What? He still had more insults after all that?_ I cursed mentally.

"You did well in the end. Thanks, Tchet."

I felt my heart race, a bit surprised to hear him calling me by my name, rather than just calling me a brat. But I was even more surprised to find that hearing him actually thanking me made me felt… _happy_. For the first time since our first meeting, he finally acknowledged me. The thought made my heart race, and I could felt my cheeks heated.

Without saying anything else, he turned and walked away. Surprised, I instinctively ran after him.

"Wait! Where're you going?"

He stopped after hearing my call but didn't turn to face me.

"I believe our business is done. What I do after this is none of your business." He replied in an as-the-matter-of-fact tone.

I felt my eye twitch. He could at least say bye or something but no, I forgot that, in his manner-less world, leaving without saying goodbye _was_ polite.

As he started to walk away again, for some reason I felt like I have to stop him. I quickly called out again.

"Wait! I'm not done yet!" I called out, and his steps stopped abruptly.

"…What?" He said, sounding clearly annoyed.

I hesitated a little as I heard the annoyance in his tone, suddenly unsure of what I was about to say. And yet I stood my ground, gathering my courage before finally opening my mouth to ask what had been bothering me all this time.

"Who… are you?"

He fell silent after hearing my question. Suddenly, he turned to face me but still didn't give any answer. Instead, he just looked at me, as if trying to decide what to say.

"What are you talking about?" He finally said.

"I mean, how did you know about that cave being hacked? And what did you do back then? I _swear_ nothing happened when I touched that stone gate and yet we managed to get out when _you_ did."

He didn't say anything, just listening as I blurted out everything that had been bothering me.

"And those monsters… If the place was hacked, then surely the monsters are too, right? Then how come you could fight them so normally? You… Just _what _are you?"

He remained silent as I finished.

"Well?" I pushed irritably, getting annoyed at his silent attitude.

He stared at me and I glared at him. After what-seemed-like a long battle of glaring, he finally sighed in defeat. In one swift step, he stood right before me, so close that I could see deep into his crimson eyes. I blushed at the sudden closeness, yet couldn't look away from his crimson gaze. Strangely, I felt as if his eyes were scanning deep inside of me.

"It's best not to get involved with me too far. In worst scenario, your character might get deleted for sure." He finally said, his deep voice threatening. "Even knowing that, you sure you still want to know?" He asked back.

I was confused by his words, but still nodded in affirmation.

"Hmph. Very well then." He stepped back, and a message box opened right before my eyes.

**Vanzard wants to put your name in his friendlist and become your friend. Accept?**

**Yes**

**No**

**Add to Friendlist**

I blinked, not understanding why he suddenly wanted to add me in his friend list. My heart skipped as I clicked my answer.

**Yes**

I gulped as I clicked the third option. My heart race as I waited for his answer. _Damn, why am I so nervous, anyway? Stop beating so freaking fast, stupid heart!_

**Vanzard has accepted your friend request.**

As I close the message box, I realized that he was no longer standing in front of me.

"Figure it out yourself."

His voice came from above. I looked up and realized that he was already on his sword ready to soar away. And then, without waiting for my answer, he flew away, leaving me with my heart still strangely beating so fast.

"I guess I'll be… seeing him around…"

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**A.N: Okay, so maybe there're some mistakes here, especially in the friend request thingy. It's been a long time since last I played PWI and I just can't remember them right so CMIIW. I tried playing once before to search for reference but no one wants to add me and I'm just too lazy to ask :P**

**Anyway, as usual, critiques are welcomed, and reviews are loved! See you in next chapter(hopefully)!**


	6. A Meeting Under the Ocean

Thanks for still reading this story! And very special thanks to 4000kills and Crixtical for the kind reviews! Without any further ado, here's chapter six!

**Disclaimer: I do not own PWI.**

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_***~*Chapter Six: A Meeting under the Ocean*~***_

"Watch out! Behind you!"

"Wha—? Gyaaah!"

Ame summoned her wings and flew up as soon as she realized the wolves were coming at her, leaving me on ground. I heard her cursing as the wolves stubbornly followed her. As if at cue with the wolves, other monsters started following her, some with ranged attack even managed to hit her. I watched almost amusedly while she desperately flying in circle to get rid of the monsters.

"That's it! I'm outta here!" And she flew away as she said that.

"Huh? Wait for me!"

I quickly summoned my Aerocraft and followed behind her as she flew toward the nearest village.

"This is impossible! Impossible, I say! Kick one of them and all the other monsters come after you! What's with those monsters, anyway?" Ame pouted in a low voice as she landed on the safe zone.

"W-well… They _are_ elite monsters so I guess that's just how they work…" I tried to calm her down but to no avail. She turned to look at me—who had just landed myself— and continued, sounding just as angry as before, if not angrier.

"Why do you insist on getting that wolf on that place, anyway? We've tried four times! Four freaking times! And still, we got nothing but useless waste of HP! Did you see how the wolf's HP was _five_ times my own? I'd be long dead before even reducing half its HP!"

True that for the past half an hour, the both of us had been doing nothing but trying to kill one wolf. Yet we're unable to kill it off as it was an elite monster _surrounded _by _a lot_ of other elite monsters. Not to mention that we _shouldn't _actually kill it, but to keep its HP as low as less that it's quarter for me to make it into my pet.

"Why do you need a new pet, anyway? Such a pain…." She continued her grumble as we jumped to one of the village's roofs and sat there to replenish our HP.

I felt my heart skipped a beat as I heard her question, reminded of the "accident" with a certain red-eyed human. I looked at her and saw her waiting for my answer.

It had been two days since the cave incident. As I had thought, playing without my pet was way too difficult, though not impossible. And yesterday was the proof, as I had the hardest time to finish just one quest without my pet. That's why today I had invited Ame all the way here to help me catch another pet, as it was almost impossible to do it alone in my current pet-less state.

And yet here we were, sitting after a good waste of half an hour with nothing but wasteful damages. It was indeed a mistake to do it with just a cleric.

"Well?" She asked again as I didn't answer, sounding impatient.

I hesitated as I looked at her, frowning as I considered whether to tell her about the cave and Vanzard or not.

_Is it okay for me to tell everything to her? _

For some reason, I felt that the accident in the cave was not something that I could just talk about freely, though Vanzard didn't say anything about it being a secret or something like that. As I hesitated, I heard Ame sighed.

"I hate those wolves. Let's just catch a turtle from the nearest lake." She said teasingly as she stood up.

"No way! They're so lame!" I quickly rejected the idea, yet somewhat glad she changed the topic.

As I stood up to follow after her, a beeping sound rang in my ear, alerting me that I just got a private message. I stopped to open it, and froze as I read the sender's name: Vanzard.

I gulped, feeling nervous all of the sudden. _What does he want from me?_ After that accident, he never contacted me or anything, and so did I. I opened the message with an anxious feeling.

-231 433-

_. . .huh?_

Another beeping was heard and another text message appeared.

-Come in 5 minutes.-

Plain and simple; with no greetings whatsoever.

I frowned. _Who the hell did he think he was? Did he think I was his slave or something?_ My nervousness quickly changed into anger as I read his message.

"Is something wrong?" I heard Ame called from above, waiting for me.

_What to do now? Should I just ignore him?_ Even little kids knew his attitude was plain rude. And I didn't really have any obligations to obey him, did I? Though I _did_ owe him for saving me twice…

I looked to Ame, hesitated before finally answering.

"Sorry. I have to go meet someone now." I apologized.

"Oh. I see…" She said, sounding a bit disappointed. "I'll just be going then—"

"Wait!" I quickly called before she flew away. "Could you… accompany me? I don't really wanna meet with this guy alone, so…"

I waited for her answer, as she was silent for a moment. Her usual teasing tone was heard as she opened her mouth again.

"Hmm? What's with this meeting-alone-with-a-guy thing? You have a boyfriend without telling me, eh? You sly girl~~~" She said with a playful smirk planted on her face.

"Wha—No way! I'd rather die than to have a boyfriend like him!" I quickly denied, unconsciously raising my voice. Yet she didn't seem to mind at all and kept her playful tone.

"Haha… No need to deny it so strongly, you know? You're sounding even more suspicious~~" She teased. "I'll tag along then. Sounds interesting."

I sighed. Maybe bringing her along wasn't such a good idea after all. _At least I won't have to face that guy alone. _With that in mind, I flew to the appointed direction while Ame tagged behind.

"You're sure this is the place?"

"Uh-huh. Strange…"

Apparently, the appointed place was on the middle of the ocean. We both looked around as we flew above the ocean, and nothing but vast blue surface was seen. I double-checked the numbers in Vanzard's message and the map; it matched perfectly. _How come there's no one here? Did he just pull a prank on me?_

"Maybe you read the map wrong?" Ame asked again, worried. We both knew that I wasn't the best map-reader in the world, if not the worst.

"I'm sure it's here. The numbers match so there shouldn't be any mistake, right?"

"Could he be… down there?"

Both of us looked down to the water below. I gulped. Even though I could only saw calm water, there's a high chance the ocean below was filled with many kinds of orange-colored names, in other words, monsters on much higher level than both of us. It was a territory both Ame and I had yet to travel, so none of us dared to dive down.

"….should we?" I dared myself to ask. Ame was silent for a moment before nodding her head.

"We could always fly up right away, right?" She said, more like convincing herself.

"In the count of 3 then. 1, 2, 3!"

The both of us jumped down at the same time. I prepared myself to fly right back up as I fell into the water, but stopped right away as the underwater view filled my sight. What I saw was nothing like I had expected.

Surrounding me and Ame was a beautiful blue underwater view, with colorful small fishes swimming around every here and there. Rays of light shone from the surface of the water, brightening the view as it added the ocean's charm. And what surprised me more was that there was not even a single monster around, unlike what we had expected.

"You're late."

A deep, familiar voice from below us was heard, snapping me out of my amazement. I looked down and realized that Vanzard was standing on the ocean's floor. And he was not alone.

Ame and I looked at each other and nodded before diving deeper towards the bottom. As we approached the bottom, I realized that there were two other people beside Vanzard; one whom I recognized as Raysand, the mage from the lizard incident.

"Geh." I heard Ame whispered under her breath as Raysand waved cheerfully towards us, obviously not pleased by his presence.

"You're late." Vanzard repeated as we reached the bottom, a hint of annoyance was clear in his tone although he sounded just as cold as ever. "Three minutes late."

_Geez, what are you, a time freak?_ I grumbled mentally.

"Now, now. No need to be so harsh to the fine lady, Van." A calm voice came from the other person, the one whom I had never seen before. "Didn't I told you to treat our guests well before?" He added.

"…My apologies, Areyst." Vanzard quickly apologized to him.

Wait, _quickly _apologized? And for such a jerk like him to use such a polite tone… This Areyst guy must be Godly…

As I watched the guy called Areyst in awe, our eyes met. He gave a friendly smile as he looked at me.

"I apologize in his behalf." He nodded politely at me. "I believe an introduction is in order. Here, I am known as Areyst." He introduced himself, with a kind smile all the while. "You must be the one Van told me about. Miss Tchet, right?"

"Y-yes." I answered nervously.

I felt uneasy as his politeness was alien to my ears, as I was so used to listening to Vanzard's rudeness and Ame's occasional cursing. As he introduced himself, I realized that he was also a winged elf, just like Ame. Yet he gave a way different aura than her.

For one, he was way more polite. Not to mention such a gentle, calming voice. With long, light golden hair reaching his back and a pair of soft green eyes adding to his elegant aura, he was truly a befitting model of a winged elf.

_So unlike a certain winged elf I knew…_ I glanced at Ame.

"But I was certain that Vanzard only told me about you. Who could this lady be, if I may ask?"

All the eyes there turned to look at Ame, who quickly looked confusedly at me.

"Uh… This is my friend, Ame. I kinda asked her to come with me here, so…" I tried to explain in her place.

"Hmm… I see…" Areyst said, sounding a bit troubled as he looked at Ame. "Is she… related as well, Van?"

"No, I believe not." Vanzard replied flatly. "Sorry, I didn't expect _her_ to bring companion." He glanced at me as he said so. _What the—? He's blaming me now?_

"No, it's not your fault. But… hmm… this is a difficult situation indeed…." Areyst looked back and forth between me and Ame.

"Hey, Boss! You're not planning to talk about 'that' in front of an 'unrelated' player, right?" Raysand, who was silent all this time, suddenly said. "Not that I mind extra ladies." He quickly added, winking at Ame as he did so.

"Geh!" Ame stepped back a bit, as if dodging his 'wink beam'.

"I suppose I can't, but…" Areyst said, sounding hesitant.

I could only watch as they argue, not understanding what they're talking about.

"Um…!" Ame suddenly spoke up. "I-I know when I'm not wanted, so… I'll be leaving now. If you'll excuse me!" She raised her voice. "'Later, Tchet." With that said, she quickly turned around and swam away.

"Ah…" I couldn't say anything as she was already swimming back up to the surface and jumped out of the water.

"Oh my. I hope we didn't upset her." I heard Areyst said in a worried tone.

"I'll check on her later, so she'll be fine. I guess." I quickly said to reassure him, taking a mental note to apologize to her later. After all, I was the one who asked her to come.

"Is that so… Please do send her my apology."

I nodded, and Areyst smiled in delight. This guy really was a nice guy.

"Now then, without further ado, let us get to the main point." He continued, his voice sounding more serious than before. He looked at the other two guys and the both of them nodded to him.

I straightened myself, feeling nervous all of the sudden as the atmosphere tensed. Even Raysand looked unusually serious.

Areyst looked at me; his gentle smile was gone as he opened his mouth.

"Tchet, you… No. Your character is going to die soon."

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**A.N: **Just in case you're wondering, the places written in the story so far do exist in PWI, with a little editing on my own, of course. Sorry for the typos and grammatical errors. I'll do some re-reading and fix them...when I'm not feeling lazy (which probably mean never). Hope you all could still enjoy the story so far! Don't forget that critiques are always welcomed, and reviews are forever loved!

Oh, and virtual cookies for anyone who can guess the main character's name meaning ;D


	7. The Reason and the Plan

I just realized that I hate-_HATE!-_re-reading my own stories. I don't know why, I just do. Well, probably because it made me felt very embarrassed every time I did, but I'm not sure. So please forgive me for the annoying typos and grammatical error. With my low level of English, I couldn't find my own mistakes even with hundreds and hundreds of re-reading (well, not that I did _that_ much of re-reading, but still).

Anyway, here's chapter 7!

**Disclaimer:** I own NOTHING but the story. Maybe.

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*~*Chapter Seven: The Reason and the Plan*~***_

_Areyst looked at me; his gentle smile was gone as he spoke._

"_Tchet, you… No. Your character is going to die soon."_

I blinked. Hard. I fell silent as my mind tried to comprehend his sentence.

"Did you just say, _die_?" I asked in disbelief.

Areyst gave me a small nod in reply.

"Well, _die_ isn't really the right word to describe it." Raysand stepped forward as he spoke up, his usual cheerful tone was nowhere to be heard. "To put it simply, your character will disappear. Eliminated. Terminated. Got the gist?"

"Like your pet." Vanzard added.

_This is gotta be some kind of joke, right?_

I looked at the three of them as they stood in front of me, looking dead serious. I tried to search for a hint of humor, but found no such a thing.

"Why? I mean, how come? I'm not…hacked or anything like that. ...right?" I shivered as I recalled what happened to Rexan.

"No, you're not." I turned to Raysand. "You're not hacked. It's more like you're… infected." He added.

"…infected?"

"Yes." Areyst spoke up. "Do you remember about the hacked cave you entered a few days ago?"

I nodded in response.

"Usually, if a player entered a hacked place, he or she wouldn't be able to come out at all, and will log out to escape such condition, resulting in their character getting deleted without them knowing why."

"But your case is different, as you actually managed to escape without logging out, since you're with Van at that time." He nodded to Van. "I thought there shall be no more problem since you survived, but unfortunately, that's not the case."

"You, or rather, your pet came into contact with the 'habitants' of the cave, and died in result. Thus deleting its data, as you know." I nodded in confirmation as Areyst continued his explanation. "We thought that would be the end of it, but no. As a venomancer, your character is linked strongly to your pet. As your pet was corrupted by the data, your character got affected as well. That's why you're 'infected'."

He stopped, as if waiting to see my reaction. All I could manage was stared at him blankly.

"That's… my miscalculation." Vanzard suddenly said, though he didn't show it, a sense of guilt was heard in his voice.

Areyst shook his head.

"No one is blaming you, Van. You did well saving both her and yourself." He smiled and reassured Vanzard, who fell silent in response.

"Now, because you're infected, your data is slowly becoming more and more corrupted. If this continues on, your character's data will start to affect your surrounding as well, like other players, places you come to, monsters, and so on." He continued his explanation. "I believe you know about the lizard monster which went berserk, seeing as you were there when it was terminated by these two." He gestured to Vanzard and Raysand.

I looked at him confusedly, before realizing that he was talking about the monster that had almost killed both me and Ame some days ago. I nodded in affirmative.

"That is an unfortunate example of a corrupted data. If your condition continues on, you'll end up producing something like that sooner or later." I shivered at the thought of having more of that kind of monster around. "Should a Game Master found out about your condition, you'll immediately be deleted. That's also the reason why we choose this place, as this is one of the few places people rarely come to."

I clapped my hand once, unconsciously whispering a low 'oh' as I finally understood the reason they chose such a …fancy place for the meeting. He didn't seem to notice it and continued with his explanation.

"And even if no one found out, you'll end up getting deleted after your data got too damaged by the infection. That's why, you'll die. Probably sooner than later." He concluded his explanation.

There was a moment of silence as I was trying to comprehend his words. It all sounded like some made-up story, a fiction from some movie or something. But for some reason, I felt that they're serious.

"Well, it's not like there's nothing we can do about it, right Boss?" Raysand broke the silence, his cheerful tone was back. "There's no way we'll let such a lovely lady like you die." He blew a kiss playfully at me. In normal situation, it would have crept the hell out of me. But now, I felt somewhat relieved to see his playfulness again.

"That's right. Especially because it was a personal request coming from Van." Areyst added, smiling as he nodded to Van.

"Eh?" I instantly looked at Van, surprised. Our eyes met for a second before he turned his head away.

"My miscalculation got her into this. It was just the normal thing to do." He said in a low voice as he looked away, as if embarrassed.

"Yeah right, you lady-killer~~" Raysand jokingly elbowed him as he teased, yet Vanzard kept looking away while grumbling something about not to put them in the same level.

"*Erhm* Anyway, with that being the case, I'll now explain our plan to save your condition." Areyst spoke up, regaining our attentions. "In your condition now, you'll most likely affect your surroundings. In worst scenario, a Game Master will find you and that will be the end of your character."

"That's why, I'm suggesting you to join us, Sylveria, so that we could easily monitor your condition. Though it's not a necessary course, it's better if you keep close to us. So? What would be your choice?" He asked me with a kind smile.

"J-joining Sylveria? Me?" I unconsciously raised my voice, shocked with his sudden invitation. Areyst gave a small nod in affirmation, smiling all the while. I looked at both Raysand and Vanzard, and Raysand winked and smiled at me, while Vanzard just smirked and grunted in assertion.

_What should I do?_ Sylveria was known to be a large and powerful faction, if not the strongest. Not to mention they held the most land in this server. _And for me to join such a faction…_

I closed my eyes, considering, before finally giving my decision.

"I'm sorry, but… I don't think I'm cut out for a big faction. And I don't think I'll fit well around too many high leveled people, seeing as I'm still weak myself, so… I'm afraid I'd have to refuse." I said, bowing in apology as I rejected their invitation.

"Whaa-? Don't worry about such trivial things! It's not like we're going to bite you or something, you know?" Raysand said, trying to make me change my mind. I could only shake my head, looking down as I mutter another apology.

"It's fine, Tchet. You don't have anything to apologize for." Areyst came closer and tapped on my shoulder. I looked up and met his soft, green eyes. "Though I still believe it's best if you stay with us, it's all up to your decision." He said reassuringly.

"Now, to cure your condition, I will have to ask you to give us three days." He continued.

"Three…days?"

Areyst nodded.

"In that time, we'll prepare the way to cure your condition. For now, I'll give you the choices you could make."

I gulped as Areyst was looking dead serious. I tried my best to focus while my heart beat a bit faster as I wasn't used to the close distance between us. His serious expression was surprisingly charming up-close.

"In these three days, you could stop logging in to avoid affecting your surroundings, or even meeting a Game Master."

"Eh? But—" I gave a sound of disapproval, but he just smiled at me.

"Or," He continued. "You could call us every time you log in, and we'll accompany you while you're around. That way, we could manage your condition and neutralized your effect on your surroundings."

And with that said, a beeping sound was heard. A friend request from Areyst. Confused, I just accepted it without saying anything. He nodded as I finished the confirmation.

"Good. Raysand." He released my shoulder and stepped back as he called to Raysand.

"Aye aye, sir!"

And another friend request window opened with a beep; this time from Raysand. As I confirmed the request, he winked playfully at me, saying we'll get along just fine. I could only give him a weak smile as his action kind of creeping me out.

"Now, with that done, may I ask what you're planning to do after this? Please remember that you shall not wander around without at least one of us with you." Areyst asked.

Though he asked politely, I couldn't help but feeling a bit pissed off by his words. For some reason, I hate the way he said things as if I was some stray dangerous creature, even though I knew he meant well.

"I think… I'll just log out for now. I feel tired… somehow…" I mumbled as I wasn't sure of what to say. He nodded at my answer.

"It's understandable. This must be quite shocking for you." He said with an understanding smile. "Rest well. Until we meet again."

"Give me a call anytime, babe!" Raysand waved at me cheerfully.

"…later, brat." Vanzard grunted.

I nodded at them—while trying my best to ignore Vanzard's annoying last word—and logged out.

This was going to be a long three days.

* * *

**A.N: **Is it just me, or am I really unable to write two punctuation mark in a row? (like '! !' or '? !' without the space in the middle, of course.). Makes the story... kind of weird when I read them again. D:

Anyway, many, many thanks for those still reading this story and even put it in their favorite and/or alert list! And very special thanks for 4000kills and Zea900 for spending some time to write the nice reviews! I love you all :D


	8. A Hidden Reason

**A.N. : **Okay, first of all, let me say that I'm really sorry for the late update. And thanks to those who still read this, and even left some nice reviews :D My laptop literally burnt out-well, at least some part inside of it which I don't really know about-and I practically lost all my story data. Good thing my friend still keep the unrevised version of them, though it still means I had to do things over again... :|

Anyway. This time I tried to do some re-reading, re-checking, and all the details that I'd born to hate (only for this chapter, tho). Realize any difference? No? Well, that only means that it's time for me to leave the troublesome works in the dust. Period.

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing of the PWI properties. How many time should I repeat this?

* * *

_***~*Chapter Eight: First Day; A Hidden Reason*~***_

"Hmmm…."

I frowned at the list in front of my eyes, pondering. In the few minutes I had logged in, I had been doing nothing but staring at my friend list, wondering whether to call the three of them or not. Though the three of them were all online, it seemed like neither of them had noticed that I had logged in. It's understandable though. I mean, it's not like they stared at the list all the time just to wait for me to log in, right? _Unlike what I've been doing right now…_ I sighed at the thought.

*Beep*

Just as I was about to click on Areyst' name, a beeping sound snapped me out of my train of thoughts, alerting me of the new incoming message. I checked the box, and found an annoyingly familiar name: Vanzard.

-Where're you?-

Plain and simple. I sighed as I sent my location's number.

-Stay there-

I gulped. Though the message was a simple two words message, it somewhat felt like he said 'Don't you dare to move even for a mere inch or I'll give you hell'. And so I did, standing there without even daring to move at all.

In less than a minute, he showed up from above. He landed right in front of me and looked around as if searching for something, before finally landed his gaze at me; _glaring_.

"How long have you logged in?" His deep voice sounded angry.

"Err… around five minutes ago?"

"Fool! Why don't you call one of us sooner?" He suddenly yelled.

I bit my lower lip, surprised and upset at the same time at his sudden anger._ So what if he was way stronger than me? That still didn't give him the right to just suddenly yell at me!_ Though my thoughts said another, my lips could only mumble out an apology. He sighed as he heard my apology.

"Wait a sec'."

He fell silent as he said so and stopped moving while still staring at me. _What's going on?_ I wondered yet waited in silence just as he commanded, as I didn't feel like getting another yell for the day. After a full minute had passed, he looked away and searched his surroundings. He let out another sigh before turning his attention back at me.

"Seems like you haven't broken anything _yet_."

I twitched. _What does he think I am; some five years old unmannered brat?_

"Your infection doesn't seem to get worsened too." He continued.

Oh, so that's what he was talking about. I felt stupid as I had forgotten about my condition for a moment. Well, it's not like it was my fault when he had such an ambiguous—_and_ annoying—language, right?

A moment of silence passed by after he had finished checking my condition, as he didn't say anything while I didn't dare to give him another reason to yell at me. _Should I just say something?_ I stared at him, trying to find a topic, yet nothing came to my mind. I sighed. This awkward silence was killing me.

"What now?" He suddenly asked.

"Huh?" I subconsciously asked back, a bit surprised as he actually said something first.

"What are you going to do from now on?" He asked again, this time sounding a bit annoyed.

"Oh. Err, well… I actually want to try catching another pet, but…"

"A pet?" He cut.

"Yes." I quickly answered, surprised that he asked. "Seeing as I am a Venomancer, I can't really fight well without a pet and, well, you know what happened to my last pet." I felt weird as I tried to explain it to him, as I thought he was the knew-it-all type.

He didn't say anything in response and just stared at me instead, one hand touching his chin as he mumbled something that sounded like 'I see…' and fell silent, as if considering something. A moment of silence passed as I—once again—had no clue what went on his mind.

"Don't. It would be better to wait 'till you get fully recovered." He finally said. "The pet will get as corrupted as you if you get it now, so don't."

I felt my eye twitched. I knew he was talking about my infection, but for some reasons, I felt like he was mocking me instead.

"How am I supposed to do my quests then?" I asked in a demanding tone, trying my best to hide my annoyance.

He looked at me as if I just asked the stupidest question ever and sighed. I clenched my fist, trying to suppress my anger as he kept annoying the hell out of me. _Damn, this guy really knows how to get on people's nerve…_

"Why did you even log in?" He asked back, not even trying to hide the annoyance in his tone.

"Ugh… Well, I… Um…" I tried to come up with some reasons but none came up. _Why did I even log in anyway?_ I realized things would be easier if I just waited for three days before logging in again, so why did I log in instead? I fell silent as I was unable to come up with any answer.

He crossed his arms as he waited for my answer. After a moment of silence—with still no answer from me—he let out another impatient sigh. I looked at him, feeling both annoyed and guilty at the same time. If I hadn't logged in, he wouldn't have to come all the way here to accompany me. I felt even more disheartened as that thought crossed my mind.

"Hmm?"

He suddenly looked up, as if realizing something. I looked at him confusedly as he mumbled something to himself.

"_Tch_… Seriously?"

Without saying anything else, he jumped on to his sword and flew.

"Come!" He commanded without even looking back.

"Eh?"

He flew away, not even giving me the chance to ask anything. I grumbled as I hastily followed behind him on my own Aerocraft. _What's up with him anyway?_

The flight didn't take long before it ended, and I followed him as he suddenly landed into a forest. I looked around upon landing. It was the same place as where I had been hunting for a new pet yesterday. _What're we doing here?_

"You… Did you come here before?" He asked as he looked around, his back facing me.

"Eh? Y-yes but, how did you—"

"How long?"

"Excuse me?"

"How long?"

"I-I don't know! Around half an hour or so, I guess.."

"Tch… How troublesome…"

_What's up with him?_ What did I do to deserve another yell anyway? I cursed him mentally as I watched him. He raised his sword and put up his fighting stance. Without any warning, he charged forward.

_Wait, what's going on?_

I looked around, and was surprised by the sight surrounding us. Too busy being annoyed by Vanzard, I didn't even realize that we were surrounded by some wolves. And as began to take notice of my surroundings, I realized that a few players were already lying around not too far from us; _dead_.

But what surprised me more were the wolves' names, as instead of names, a line of question marks replaced them. And though their color was slightly darker and their bodies a bit bigger, I recognized them as the same wolves I had fought—or at least tried to—yesterday.

"Hey! Watch it!"

"Huh?" I looked at Vanzard confusedly as he suddenly yelled.

A wolf came charging at me, catching me completely off guard. Vanzard dashed to my side and fend off the said wolf. "Concentrate!" He shouted as he did so.

"Y-yes!" I put up my fighting stance hastily, feeling uneasy because of the lack of a pet. I chanted an attack spell and a swarm of bees came to my aid, attacking the wolf in front of me. I chanted various attack spells continuously and the wolf died in less than a minute. I frowned. _Wasn't it a little bit… too fast?_

As I wondered for a second, another wolf came charging at me and this time successfully landed a critical hit; or at least supposed to be critical, from how the sound effects sounded. I blinked, dumbfounded as I watched my HP; it wasn't even reduced at all. _What's going on? _My mind wondered confusedly as I fought back another wolf.

After what seems like ten minutes had passed, the mob of wolves finally cleared up, leaving only me and Vanzard standing. I looked back at my HP; no damage had reduced it at all. And I was sure I got hit more than four or five times in the battle.

"So this place was already affected… I was careless…" I heard him said.

"Affected?" I raised an eyebrow at the word. "Did I… do this?" I asked carefully. He was silent for a moment, before nodding silently in confirmation.

"That's why you shouldn't wander around alone." He added without looking at me, annoyance wasn't absent from his voice.

I twitched in anger. _Could he be any more unwilling?_

"Why are you doing this anyway?" I asked in a low voice, my voice shook a bit in anger.

"What?" Looks like it was his turn to raise an eyebrow at my question, as a bit of surprised tone escaped in his voice.

"If you find it so troublesome, why not just hand me to some GM and have me deleted instead?" I subconsciously raised my voice as I couldn't control my emotions.

He looked at me and fell silent for seconds, as if taken aback by my sudden outburst. I glared at him, waiting for his answer. At that time I didn't even care if he'd get angry, or even yell back at me. I just had enough of his attitude, and I wanted him to know that.

He looked away; his voice was troubled as he answered, as if he wasn't sure what to say. "I can't…give up on you…"

His voice was so low – I could barely hear it. I blinked, not believing what I just heard. Though I wasn't sure of what he meant by that, my heart couldn't stop from beating faster.

"What… do you mean?" I asked slowly, unsure of what to feel about his earlier statement.

He was silent for a moment, and instead looked away even more until his back was once again facing me. Though with the same low voice, a clear determination and—if my ears weren't playing tricks on me—hatred could be heard in his voice as he answered.

"Because that'd be the same as… losing to _him._"


	9. A Date? Part 1

**Special thanks: **To whoever still read, wait, and reviewed for this almost-forgotten story of mine. I won't ask for any forgiveness for the so-late-that-I-actually-almost-forgot-the-story-existed update, because I know I don't deserve it. Instead, I'll just present you two chapter at once. Hope you can still enjoy the story.

**Disclaimer: don't own a thing except for the character and the plot, I guess.**

* * *

_***~*Chapter Nine: Second Day, A Date?*~***_

*PING*

A low ping was heard, alerting me that I had successfully logged in. Without further ado, I opened my friend list, and frowned hard as a certain name caught my attention.

Vanzard.

**_*oOo*_**

"_Because that'd be the same as… losing to _him_."_

"_What?" His voice was getting even lower as he spoke; I wasn't even certain I heard him right. Did he just say, losing? But, to who?_

"_Tch…" I heard him grunting. "…log off."_

"_Huh?"_

"_I said log off already…" He repeated. Though his voice sounded much calmer, it emitted a certain dangerous tone as he spoke._

"_What? No way!" I strongly rejected, not wanting to lose to him by obeying his words._

_He sighed heavily as he heard my immediate answer, as if half expecting it. A silent pause filled the air for a few seconds before he faced me again, and—much to my surprise—a smirk was visible on his lips. And his tone was completely different as he spoke, though the coldness hadn't escaped it._

"_Hmm? Do you really want to stay with me that badly?" He asked in the weird tone—as if mocking me._

"_O-Of course not!" I quickly denied, my voice shook a bit as I didn't expect such question. From Raysand? Maybe. But from Vanzard? Not even in my dream._

"_Oho. But I see it quite differently." He slowly approached me; his voice was strangely… seductive, for the lack of better words. "Or were you… expecting something else?"_

_I felt my cheeks heated. What had suddenly gotten into this guy? I looked away as he was getting closer. "W-what are y-you talking about?" I couldn't help but stutter, both from embarrassment and anger. I shuddered as his right hand reached out to my face._

"_No? If so, then," I gulped in panic as his face was getting closer, "leave. Now." His voice was cold as ice as he ordered me so._

_I gritted my teeth in anger, never before feeling so humiliated. I shoved his hand away and stepped back. _

"_You… You jerk!"_

_Completely taken over by rage, I pushed the log out button without thinking. And just before my vision blacked out, I saw him smirking in triumph._

_****__*oOo*_  


I clenched my fist in rage as the unwanted memory replayed itself in my mind. I glared harder at the accursed name, ready to call him over. _This time, I'll be sure to give him a huge piece of my mind…._

"Tchet?"

Just before I could click on the name, a familiar voice called my name, almost making me jump in surprise as it completely caught me off-guard. I looked around, and my eyes met with Raysand's digital blue ones. He smiled as our eyes met, while I just raised an eyebrow at the unexpected company. _What's he doing here?_

"Perfect timing! I've just got here to wait for you to login." He grinned as he answered my unspoken question.

"What are you talking about?"

"Vanzard told me the location from where you last logged off, since he couldn't manage it today. And so, here I am!" I could only look at him confusedly as he explained cheerfully. "So today, it'd be a date with just the two of us." A wink and a playful smirk followed his last sentence.

I frowned, not really sure of how to react to his self proclaimed date.

"Or were you expecting someone else?" He added teasingly, as I stayed silent.

"O-of course not!" I denied strongly, quickly looked away as if afraid that he would be able to read my thoughts if I were to stare any longer.

He chuckled at my reaction and stepped closer. "Stay still for a minute, 'kay?" And just like how Vanzard did yesterday, he stared at me for awhile and looked around. By this time I realized that they actually did that to check on my condition.

"All right! Seems like nothing's wrong." He stepped back and threw another cheerful grin.

I looked at him in awe. After having been treated like trash by Vanzard yesterday, Raysand's constant smile and cheerfulness felt very… refreshing. How this friendly guy was able to get along with such a heartless man was beyond my comprehension.

"Hmm? What's wrong?" He asked as I didn't say anything.

Suddenly realized that I had been staring at him, I once again looked away, this time in embarrassment. "N-nothing." I mumbled under my breath.

"Really, now? Well, don't look at me with that lovely eyes of yours too much or I'll fall for you in no time, sweetie." He said in a suggestive tone.

"Ah…haha.. ha…" An awkward laugh was all I could manage to say.

Okay, at least he was a decently nice guy, though I'd definitely prefer to have less of his… flirty passes. Still, I'd rather have his company rather than that—

"Vanzard—"

"Huh?" I jerked in surprise at the sudden mention of the blademaster's name._ Did he just hear my thoughts?_

"—couldn't make it today and asked me to come instead" He continued as he sat down on the grass; his back leaning on the nearest rock while his arms rested behind his head.

"O-oh. I see…" I sighed in relief, as for a second I had actually thought he had heard me thinking.

"Too bad, huh?" He asked teasingly.

"W-wha—? Of course not!" I quickly denied, a bit stronger than I intended to. "Hell, I'll take as many Vanzard-free day as I can gladly!"

He laughed heartily at my comment. "Vanzard-free day, huh? Nice one." He said in-between his laughter. Though I didn't mean it as a joke, I ended up laughing along as his laughter sounded very amused.

"Oh. You could relax and take a seat, you know. I've already cleared the area so we could presume our _date _without any hindrance." He patted on the grass beside him, gesturing for me to take a seat right beside him.

My laughter stopped as I frowned, not sure that taking the offer would be the best idea. And yet I sat down anyway after a few seconds of hesitating as I saw no harm in doing so, though I still chose to make a clear distance between us, to which the mage didn't complain.

"But seriously, how could you get along with him, anyway? I mean, we both know that he is _definitely _not the nicest person on earth, if not the rudest." I voiced my curiosity after I sat down. "I don't even think he _knows_ how to be nice." I added bitterly.

"Haha! That's probably true…" He voiced an agreement, added with bits of laughter. "Well, what makes _you_ think we get along?" He asked me back.

"Eh?" I fell silent for a moment, confused as I wasn't expecting him to ask back. "Well… At least he didn't seem to be bothered when you're joking with him, while he seemed to yellat me at _every_ chance he could take. And you didn't seem to mind his rude attitude either." I tried to explain.

"Yelled at you?" He asked, suddenly sounding very intrigued. "Did he, really?"

"Y-yes, well—"

I told him what had happened between me and Vanzard yesterday, while he listened intently. For some reasons he seemed to be very interested in it.

"Hmm… I see… So in a sense, I guess me and Van _do_ kinda get along, eh?" He chuckled. Though he didn't show it, he sounded pretty happy after hearing my explanation. "But you know, from what I just heard, I'd say _you _and Van got along just fine as well, Tchet."

I blinked, _hard_. Did he just say that _me _and _that _Vanzard got along? "No freaking way!" I shouted my thoughts out loud, unconsciously raising my volume as the statement was completely unexpected. _How did he come up with such a conclusion, anyway?_

"Ahhaha! But that's true!" He added convincingly. "At least, I don't think he hates you. After all, he _did _give a personal request to Areyst to save you."

"W-well, that might be so but…"

"And I think Van probably yelled at you just because he was worried about you." He continued.

"W-worried?" I couldn't help but shouted again, unable to hide my surprise. I had never thought that the words 'Vanzard' and 'worried' could ever make a sentence, especially when 'I' was the object. Well, not unless there's a 'not' included. And even if it was true, the said man sure had quite a way to show it.

"You've GOT to be kidding me!"

He shook his head as he chuckled, seeming very amused at my reaction. "You know, ever since the first time I met him 'till now, I think you're probably the second girl that have ever talked that much with him. And you both have barely known each other, too!"

"Second?" I raised my eyebrow at the word, intrigued. He nodded a bit and continued.

"He usually ignored people—especially girls, you know. Unless he's got unavoidable business with them, even getting beyond 'hello' would be quite an accomplishment." He explained, amused grin still planted widely on his lips. "And, as far as I know, there hadn't been any other exception, not even back in the guild, except for _her, _and now you, Tchet."

I was at loss of words, uncertain of how I should react—or felt—after hearing that. A tingling sensation ran through my feelings—almost made me believe that I was actually happy to hear that. But what surprised me more was how the extra bit of the information strangely bugged me…

"And by _her_, you mean…?" I asked carefully, not wanting to sound too curious.

"Hmm? Jealous already?" He teased.

"No! Just… a little bit curious is all…" I mumbled under my breath.

He chuckled again at my reaction, before answering the question.

"Well, by her I meant—"

"Oh."

A small, surprised gasp was heard before Raysand could finish his sentence. The both of us quickly looked around to search for the voice owner, and my eyes widen in surprise as a certain blue haired elf—one that I had known all too well—entered my view.

But what surprised me was not the fact that I knew the elf; it was the fact that the cleric was currently pointing her weapon towards us.

"Ame…?"


	10. A Date? Part 2

**Disclaimer:** Own none of the PWI properties.

* * *

_***~*Chapter Nine: Second Day, A Date?*~***_

Ever since that 'grand' meeting under the sea, I hadn't been able to get in touch again with her, and all the fuzz about this stupid 'data-corruption' of mine had made me totally forgot about her. Not really a good thing to do to a close friend, I know, so I had expected her to be a bit angry when I see her again.

But now, how could I be not surprised, when the almost forgotten friend was pointing a weapon at me when I first see her again? She couldn't be _that_ mad now, could she?

"T-tchet…?"

She looked at the both of us with a confused look, as if just as surprised as we were to see her pointing a weapon toward us, "W-why are you here?" She asked as she looked at me, and then at Raysand with a questioning—and dare I say, _cautious—_look in her eyes.

I suddenly realized that I hadn't told her anything about my current situation yet, and how she had just left the other day gave me no chances to. And judging by how she suddenly saw me alone with Raysand, whom I believed she still saw as some pervert playboy, there's no doubt that she was currently jumping into strange conclusion.

"Ame, this is absolutely not like what you're thinking right now…" I denied before she could even state a thing, guessing that her current behavior might be caused by her thinking that Raysand was making dangerous advances towards me.

"Hmm? And why would this not be whatever she's thinking about?" Raysand asked in his usual teasing tone, giving no help at all by warping his right arm around my shoulders. When did he get to my side, anyway?

"But no worries, honey. I'll always have an open arm for two beautiful ladies." He added, sending a playful wink at Ame and held out his free hand towards her.

"Uh… Thanks, but no thanks." She quickly took a full step back, and I believed that sentence just now sent shivers down her bones. "I'd rather not, uh, disturb you both so I think I'll just—uh!"

I looked at her confusedly as she didn't finish her sentence and just froze in place. "…is something the matter?" I asked worriedly as she didn't say a thing, not forgetting to shove away Raysand's right arm from my shoulder.

"…not…again..."

"What?"

"I-it's nothing! Just…run along with your date or whatever now!" She said anxiously, with slight panic clear in her voice while the cleric still froze in her place.

Confused, I stood up and walked towards her, worried to see her strange act. "Ame, what's—oh!"

"S-stay away!"

With the late warning, Ame swung her sword-like wand towards me and landed a direct hit. I stepped back and gasped in shock. And to my surprise, the attack actually managed to reduce my HP to almost its half.

"Ame? W-what're you doing?" I asked in surprise, half because of her sudden attack and half because of the damage she just made. _When did she become _that_ strong at physical damage?_

"I didn't—I wasn't trying to—"

And without even finishing her sentence, she casted a spell and a blue arrow formed in her hands, with its arrowhead pointed straightly at me.

Taken completely out of guard, I saw no chances of dodging with our close range and just closed my eyes before she unleashed the arrow, readying myself for the damage. But the hit never come, and as I opened my eyes in confusion, I saw Raysand was already standing right in front of me, taking the damage in my place.

"You okay, miss?" I heard him asked.

"Raysand!"

The said mage just smirked, before turning to face his attacker. "Quite a fiery one, aren't you? Not that I hate fiery ones…" He somehow managed to still send another wink to her.

I quickly checked on his HP bar and was more than surprised to see almost a quarter of it was empty. How could it be? Though I knew Ame's magic attack was indeed strong, I was sure she wasn't _this_ strong. Not to mention that her character's level was quite a bit lower than mine.

"I—I can't control my character, Tchet! Please, run!" Blue light engulfed the cleric's hand, as the magic arrow once again formed, ready to attack.

"Ame!"

"Step back, lady. She seemed to attack those closest in range." He commanded, his back facing me while he seemed to heal himself with a healing potion. "I'll handle this."

"But…!"

"Don't worry, miss. I'm used to handling wild girls."

And just like that, he dashed toward Ame.

"Stay away!" Ame shouted as she charged another one of her arrows spell.

This time, Raysand successfully dodged it as he rolled to his right. He stopped and chanted a spell, and blue light started surrounding him. In mere seconds ice spears formed around him and attacked her.

"No!"

She didn't dodge and casted another spell instead, and white feathers surrounded her in circles. The feathers seemed to shield her though she still took quite some damage. She casted another arrow at him, ignoring the spears of ice that pierced through the feathers.

"Sorry honey, but I need you to sleep for a while." Raysand said as he dodged the attack.

He casted another spell; this time a phoenix-like fire formed above him and started to attack her rapidly. Before it attacked her, Ame casted what seemed like a healing spell a few times to her. As the phoenix did continuous damage, the cleric's HP bar healed every time it was reduced, leaving the attack useless.

As if unfazed by the damage, she casted another spell, and this time a tornado formed around Raysand. I could hear him grunted as his HP bar was decreasing; now getting dangerously past its half.

Suddenly a rainbow-colored light shone on him and his HP was healed almost completely; a healing spell. Both I and Raysand looked at Ame, who was the only one who could have casted it here, with a confused look.

"I couldn't let you die now, right? You _are_ trying to stop me… right?" She said, though contrary to her words, she casted another arrow and attacked him yet again. "Sorry, but…I can't control my movements any longer, so please…"

I could see Raysand smiled at her before charging to her. "Don't worry, sweetheart. I'll definitely end this little nightmare." He said as he casted another spell, and another ice spears attacked her. Another of the cleric's feather-like shield formed, reducing the damages from the mage's spell.

"Interesting…" The blue-haired mage said as he rolled to dodge yet another arrow, and a playful smirk could be seen as he said so.

The battle continues for minutes, though it sure felt longer. At first glance, they seemed to be fighting equally—Ame on the lead, even. Yet after a few time passed, I got this feeling that Raysand was intentionally prolonging the battle.

"Sorry but, could you please put _more_ effort in this?" Ame's annoyed tone was heard, telling me that I wasn't the only one that felt that way. "I don't think I'm going down that easily." She casted another tornado around him, ignoring the ice spears that was still attacking her.

The mage's smirk only widened at the demand, and with a slight bow he answered, "As you wish, milady."

And with that, he charged towards her and stopped right in front of her. A blinding flame suddenly emitted from his body, and for a second I thought he had self-exploded. As the view cleared, I could see Ame lying on the ground, her HP finally depleted, while Raysand was kneeling down right beside her.

"Stay here. I'll check on your data right away." He said as he examined her carefully.

"My…data?" An obvious confused tone was heard in her voice,

"It's okay, Ame. He knows what he's doing." I reassured her.

"O..kay… But could you please do it not so… closely?"

"Hmm? Don't worry, you'll never get enough of me." He said, and purposely leaned his head closer to hers.

"Wha-! No! Stay away!" Ame shouted in panic. If she could help it, I was so sure she'd roll away just to get away from him.

"Haha… No need to be so shy, girl." He laughed, clearly amused by her annoyance. "Anyway, as I was afraid of, she seemed to be affected by you, Tchet." He added, once again in his rarely-heard serious tone as he rose and turned to face me.

I looked at him in disbelief as I heard it. _So Ame…'went berserk' because of me?_

"I'm sorry, but I guess our short 'date' have to end now." He shook his head in regret and shrugged. "I'm afraid 'managing' two at once was, after all, too much indeed."

I bit my lower lip as both pang of regret and guilt struck my heart; regret of hadn't been able to do anything to help earlier, and guilt for being the cause of it all. "Is there anything that…I could help with?"

A gentle smile—one without his usual teasing look or the likes—formed on Raysand's digital face, as the mage rose and patted my head reassuringly. "I'll need to report this to Areyst, and have this accident investigated with the others. So you could just take it easy for the rest of the day and leave this to us, okay?"

I fell silent for a moment as I let his words sunk into my mind, before finally nodding in comply. I realized that for now, the best that I could do was to log out and try not to get in their way.

"Well then, I guess I'll… leave her to you, Raysand." I glanced once again at the victimized cleric, sending her an apologetic look before clicking on the log out button. "I'm sorry, Ame."

"Wait, what? No! You can't just leave me with this—this guy!"

And her shout was the last thing I heard before my vision blacked out.

* * *

**A.N:** Okay, maybe two chapters in one update won't pay for the too-late-of-an update, but at least I tried...right? I realized that one of the reason I tend to forget to update is because I had no idea of what to say in A.N.s, left it empty for quite a while, and just simply forgot to update the story. So maybe from now on I won't add A.N unless needed. And as always, critics are highly welcomed, and reviews are always loved. I need the inspirations and corrections-_especially _correction, seriously.


	11. A Test! Part 1

Random update after almost 2 years. Yay? No? Okay...

* * *

_***~*Chapter Ten: Third Day, The Test*~***_

"Tch. Finally."

"Huh?"

I was more than surprised to see that the first thing that filled my vision was the face I'd least expected; Vanzard's. And with his most unwelcoming greeting too, nonetheless. At least, if that could even count as a greeting.

"Woah! Why are you—?" I jumped back in surprise, half-glaring at his stoic face.

He didn't say a thing and just stared at me. I flinched uneasily under his stare, but didn't protest as I immediately understood that he was just doing the 'daily check-up'. He looked away after a couple of minutes, indicating that he had just finished.

"Follow me." He suddenly ordered.

"Huh? H-hey wait!"

Without giving me any chance to ask, or even wait for me to actually follow him, he jumped onto his sword and took off. I grumbled in protest as I summoned my Cloudchase Gryphon and followed behind him.

"Don't fall behind." He warned, not even looking back.

"I won't!" I shouted back at him, already in a bad mood.

But as much as I hated to admit, my gryphon was definitely not the fastest Aerocraft around, though it was definitely not the slowest. That's why I was more than thankful that both the human and untamed races were on almost the same level in terms of flying, so I was able to keep up just fine without having to lose my face.

"…Where are we going?" I asked carefully, not in the mood for another of his yelling.

"Areyst asked for you." He answered in a flat tone, still not looking at me. "He told me to bring you as soon as possible."

"Oh?" A tone of curiousity slipped in my voice, and yet he didn't bother to take notice. I grumbled another questioning tone."And he asked for me because…?"

He sighed before answering again, not even bothering to hide his reluctance.

"There's someone he'd like you to meet."

**o-o**

The vast forest soon changed into green plains, and then mountains. But there's still no sign of a soon stop. Vanzard just kept flying forward—sometimes going higher or lower to evade the monsters—while I tried my best not to lost track of him.

Along the flight Vanzard didn't say a thing after answering my last question and I was just not in the mood to break the ice or anything. And so the heavy silence filled the little trip. At least the silence was more tolerable than his angry yell or degrading statement.

Was this what Raysand mean when he said Vanzard usually ignore people? _Talk about being friendly…_ I sighed at the thought. I watched as his silver hair was blown by the wind. Though I couldn't see it from here, I could swear his expression was as stoic as ever. _Did he ever smile at all?_

"Land now." He suddenly said, almost making me jump in surprise. "We walk from here."

And (again) without so much of an explanation, he jumped off of his sword and landed. I followed him and landed right next to him, and that's when I realized that our surroundings were covered in white snow.

"Stay close." He ordered.

"Huh?" I asked confusedly, yet he ignored me and walked forward. I grumbled a protest as it was the second time he'd done it today.

I followed him from behind, though it was getting harder to see as there seemed to be a snow storm going on. For once I was thankful that Vanzard's armor was black, as it made him stand out in the vast white of snow.

"Get down." He suddenly dropped to his knees, hiding behind what seemed to be a bush covered in snow. Reflex made me follow suit before I could raise any question.

"W-what's going-"

"Shhh."

I felt my cheek heated as his face was suddenly right beside mine, yet he seemed to be unbothered by the closeness as he just stared forward. A tingling sensation from his hissing right beside my ears made me shivered, yet I was determined not to show it. Though I was sure that he wouldn't notice it even if I did.

"Die! Weaklings!"

"Don't even think about running, cowards!"

"Get them! Over there!"

"Gaah!"

Voices of what sounded like a vast battle made me turned my head in surprise as it grew louder and louder. I followed Vanzards eyes and saw that there were some people—two barbarians and three assassins—fighting each other not far from us.

I watched in shock as they battled each other fiercely. As I tried to squint my eyes harder, I could see that there were actually more battles surrounding us. And they were all battles between players.

"W-what's happening?" I whispered in a low voice.

"This place is a famous hardcore PK field. This is only natural." He said in an as-the-matter-of-fact tone. "You get caught in the middle of that, and you're not getting out until you've finished everyone off, or drop dead."

"What?! Then why the hell are we here in the first place?!" I hissed at him in panic. There's no way I'd survive out there more than three minutes, not without my pet around.

"I've told you; to meet with Areyst." He stated, ending the conversation one-sidedly.

I looked at him in disbelief. Why in the world would Areyst want to meet in such a place?

As the battles started to clear, or rather, the players started to die one by one, Vanzard hissed again beside my ear, much to my dismay. "You see that big hole behind the tall stone pillars?"

I looked up and nodded, though it was hard to concentrate with him being so close.

"When I give you the word, run there as fast as you can." He ordered. "Don't stop until you're there."

I gulped nervously, but nodded anyway. He suddenly stood up and charged forward, his sword aimed at the only two players standing between me and the stone pillars.

"Now!"

I jumped out of the bush and quickly changed into my fox form. In one swift movement I managed to slip through the battling players, unnoticed as they were busy with Vanzard distracting them. As I reached the stone pillars and hid myself behind them, I changed back into my human form. For a few seconds all I could do was standing still, my heart still beating so fast from the excitement.

As I finally pulled myself together, I stepped into the hole, which turned out to be some kind of entrance into another field of snow, but with the absent of the snow storm and the furious battlers. I looked around and noticed Areyst standing not far from the entrance, and he's not alone.

"Welcome, Tchet." Areyst greeted me with his warm smile as I approached him. "We've been expecting you."

I automatically smiled back at him, something I could rarely do in the past minutes too long I had spent with Vanzard. I glanced at his back and my eyes met with a pair of azure ones.

Behind him was a woman belonged to the tideborn race, an assassin to be precise. Her skin was pale blue, with dark crimson armor contrasting the color of her skin. Wavy pale blonde hair dropped freely yet nicely to her shoulder. And, unlike most tideborn I had seen, there were no shells or the likes decorating her head. Yet she was still as stunning as any other tideborns.

She smiled sweetly as our eyes met, and I smiled back in confusion. Who was she?

"I believe you two haven't met yet. This is—"

"Areyst," Her voice—sweet and calm, complementary with her role as an assassin yet fit to her sweet demeanor—stopped him. "I can introduce myself just fine."

Areyst smiled in understanding and stepped back, allowing us to face each other directly. She didn't look less stunning, if not even more charming. Tideborns were always known for their exceptional looks, and she was definitely not an exception. Made me kind of wished I had put a lot more effort to my PC's appearance, though I was proud of what I had.

"Here, I am known as Lusye, the current leader of Auron. Pleased to make your acquaintance." She bows politely. "You must be Tchet."

I blinked in disbelief. Did she just say… leader of Auron? _That_ Auron? What could such a high-ranked player want with me?

"I've heard a lot about you from Areyst and Van, especially about your current condition." She continued. "And I know that you're in the condition you're in right now is partially—no—mostly because of some members of our guild's fault. I deeply apologized for that."

I watched confusedly as she bowed even deeper to me, before I realized that she was actually talking about the cave incident. I vaguely remembered that at that time, Vanzard too, talked about a guild called Auron.

"And that's why, to take responsibility for that, I'd gladly take part in this test." She added with a brighter smile.

I blinked, confused.

"This…test?" I asked carefully, afraid I had misheard something.

"Ah. I'll explain it from here, if I may."

Both me and the girl called Lusye turned to look at Areyst, who nodded in return.

"I believe you do remember what had happened to your friend, Miss Ame, yesterday when she…went berserk, don't you?" He confirmed, to which I nodded in reply. "From what I could conclude, what happened to her was just a small piece of effect of what could happen to you, had your condition been out of our supervision."

"But then again, she was not infected in the same way as you were. So that have left us with a question, will you _actually_ go through the same 'berserk condition' as she did, or will you go through a completely different condition?" He continued.

"And that's why I'd like to ask for your permission to conduct a test, in which I'll stop the maintenance on you that have kept your data stable, and see the change it will do after that. In other words, it will be a test to see how you strive in battle in an 'infected condition'."

"Lusye here has volunteered to do the battle, and I have agreed to it as well, as we could put trust on her skills and controls." He nodded to Lusye, who then smiled at me in.

"All that is left is your agreement. Of course, we would never push you to do what you do not wish to do. As I'm afraid the result may or may not be useful to curing your condition, it is completely up to you whether to participate or not." He smiled, a hint of regret in his smile.

"But… why here?" I finally asked what had been bugging me for quite some time.

"Well, we need a place where you could actually do PK-ing to get an accurate data, and since this place is usually avoided by normal players who don't like PKs, _and_ the players who actually _like_ PK-ing will be too busy outside, I think this place would be just perfect." Areyst explained in a more cheerful tone.

"Or so he said. He just loved to make meetings in the most bizarre places, you know?" Lusye whispered to me and giggled. I smiled at hearing her explanation, suddenly remembered how the first meeting with Areyst was under a beautiful ocean.

"So," Areyst continued. "Your answer is…?"

I looked at Areyst, and then to Lusye. So, to put it simply, I'd have to fight Lusye, in case I said yes, right? I looked again at the both of them, confused.

"I-I…."

"She doesn't have to fight Lusye." Vanzard's voice was suddenly heard. The three of us quickly turned and saw him entering from the entrance. "I'll fight her instead."

My jaw almost dropped in shock.

"What?!" I unconsciously shouted out loud. He can't be serious, right?

"Van!" Lusye's voice called him in a protesting tone. "It's my duty to take responsibility after my subordinate's wrong doing! Please don't get in the way!"

"But it's dangerous!" Van protested back in an unusual, strange tone that almost sounded like… worry. "When she's released from the maintenance, she could infect you as well. No one could tell what would happen to you if she somehow… killed you."

Lusye shook her head calmly in reply. "Don't forget who you're talking to, Van. You should know better than anyone that I could take care of myself as much as you or Areyst could." She said in her same, sweet voice, yet the confidence in her voice was clear.

Vanzard flinched, as if still not accepting the fact, but didn't say anything more.

"So that's how it is, Tchet." Areyst suddenly said. "Now it's all up to you."


End file.
